Wednesday, September 21, 2016

For the many years that The Dark Tower was in development hell, one or more TV series was always part of the plan. When The Dark Tower movie finally moved forward with a budget, it was assumed that part of the plan was dropped. It turns out that is not the case. Current plans are to release a 10 to 13 episode limited series that would begin filming in 2017 for release in 2018 with Sony financing the show "depending on how the scripts and story arcs develop." In short, all this really depends on how The Dark Tower performs at the box office. The movie fails then obviously the TV series and any subsequent movies are done.
Assuming it goes forward, the series would include Idris Elba (Roland) and Tom Taylor (Jake) who would each reprise their roles from the movie. However, since the stories will be heavily lifted from The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, their involvement will likely simply be used to set up the flashbacks as the book told a significant chunk of back story about the Gunslinger from his childhood and key moments that influenced his decision to hunt down the Man in Black, Walter O'Dim (aka big bad of the series). Its the same book the Marvel comics stories realized on when first telling the Dark Tower saga. Speaking of, Matthew McConaughey has not signed on to play Walter in the series but that doesn't matter much as the character often changes his entire identity to match his goals and in this case that means being Marten Broadcloak, right hand man to Roland's father and eventual destroyer of his family and kingdom. There is a lot to mine there which hopefully means a fast paced story that will delve deep into the Roland Deschain character.